Going Home
by WallsClosingIn
Summary: One-Shot. Harry walks through the grounds of Hogwarts towards his fate. Finally welcoming death at the hands of Tom Riddle. Harry's thoughts . Please R&R I hate summarys.


As I walk across grounds of Hogwarts, I hear the screames of battle from behind its grand stone walls. However, I find myself enveloped in an atmosphere of tranquility, closed off from the rest of the world.

I am walking to my death, but I am numb. There is no panic, no dread, no alarm. I just slowly continue to walk to the place where, after 16 years of evading Tom Riddle, I will finally reach the fate I should have received alongside my mother all those years ago.

Finally, it will be over. I know what is about to happen to me, but yet I feel as if I am unaware. The whole concept of death is surreal.

I suppose I have expected death throughout my life, during the hunt for the Horcruxes. But at the same time, I never really expected to die.

I think of the others I have left behind. They fight for the greater good. They fight to defeat the darkness. Ginny waits for me to return, but I will never come back.

I will never marry Ginny. I will never have children of my own. I will never get a career, a house, a family. Instead, at the age of 17, I am going to die.

Imagine, at the end of the day, going to sleep _knowing_ you will never wake up. That this is the end for you. Your family and friends are completely unaware of what is about to happen, fully expecting to see you only a few hours later.

You know if you tell them, that they will try to stop you.

You know that there will be tears and anguish when you are discovered.

And yet you know that there is no way to stop it, it is beyond your control, and you have made peace with the fact.

Not many people get the chance to accept their death. Like my parents. They had a promising life, a young son, and then their lives were snatched away from them.

I suppose in a way I am lucky, I get to make my peace.

I enter the forest, savouring the smell of every plant, the crunch of every twig I step on, the sound of every creature racing thruogh the undergrowth.

I find that my senses are heightened, not through fear or andrenaline. I know these are my last moments alive, and I am enjoying them as I enjoyed my first moments on earth.

* * *

I press the cold metal of the Snitch to my lips with slightly trembling fingers.

I turn the stone of the ring three times with my fingertips.

I face the images surrounding me.

Lily Evans, my mother, her wide, loving smile sends instant warmth through me. Her eyes are full of pride and sorrow as she faces me.

James Potter, my father, the man so much like me, the father I was never lucky enough to have faces me. A mirror image, beaming at me.

Remus Lupin, like my father, taken away from his son before they were ready to part ways, looks at me with a large smile. Happpier than I had seen him for a long time.

Sirius Black, my godfather, the closest I had been given as a father during my life at Hogwarts.

The first tear of the night slides down my cheek as I gaze upon these four. My family.

They walk with me through the forest, silent, but their presence is warming me, giving me courage.

"Harry Potter" A snake-like voice issues from the head of a large crowd gathered in the forest.

There is more talking, more hurried voices, bellowing roars from Hagrid, my dearest friend.

I can feel the growing tension in the atmosphere. I am still calm, I have made my peace.

I am absent, bathing in the glow of my mother and father's smiles, remembering.

The endless laughs with Ron and Hermione. My best friends. My light in the darkness.

The day I was told I was a wizard. By the very same Hagrid that say before me now, shedding tears for my fate.

I embrace the happiness of my memories as a flash of green light engulfs me.

I chance another quick glance at the four figures that stand around me. Protecting me, sheltering me.

Here is my family. All of them beyond, in a further place.

They say home is where the family is.

So I'm going home.

* * *

**A really really quick fic, I read this part of Deathly Hallows last night and just felt like writing a One-Shot about it.**


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